On January 12, at the symposium of major government leaders from the Yangtze River Delta, the Cooperation Agreement on Jointly Advancing Collaborative Civil Aviation Development and Building a World-class Airport Cluster in the Yangtze River Delta (hereinafter referred to as the Agreement) was jointly signed by CAAC, Shanghai City, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui Provinces. CAAC Deputy Administrator Wang Zhiqing, on behalf of CAAC, signed the Agreement together with the executive vice mayor of Shanghai, and executive vice governors of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui Provinces. The signing was witnessed by other major chiefs from the three provinces and Shanghai City.

Based on the Agreement, the four parties agreed that the Yangtze River Delta has adequate conditions and capabilities to break through their bottlenecks for development, refocus their attention from scale to quality, build a world-level airport cluster, find a new way of synergetic development of civil aviation and regional economy and society, and provide solid support for building a world-class city cluster and realizing the strategy of building a civil aviation power. Aiming at improving Shanghai’s function as an international aviation hub and enhancing its global competitiveness, they will bring into full play the comparative advantages and synergism of various modes of transportation, promote appropriate positioning and differentiated operation of airports in the region, establish a pattern of benign competition and harmonious development, build an airport system with clearer work division, more functions, closer collaboration, smoother connection and more efficient operation, and realize the goals of building a world-class city cluster and a world-level airport cluster by 2030; carry out joint research and formulate the Strategic Plan for Collaborative Civil Aviation Development in the Yangtze River Delta as soon as possible to provide top-level design for collaborative civil aviation development in the region and building of a world-class airport cluster; jointly advance airspace optimization in the Yangtze River Delta and further promote civil-military integration; establish and improve the communication and coordination mechanism for collaborative civil aviation development in the Yangtze River Delta, and push forward the implementation of various tasks.

The city cluster in the Yangtze River Delta is one of the most economically dynamic, open and creative regions in China which has attracted the largest number of migrated population. It is a key area along the Belt and Road and in the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone, shouldering important functions of leading regional development and facilitating opening up. Civil aviation industry is a critical and strategic industry for the state, which plays an important supportive role in promoting social and economic development and opening up. The signing of the Agreement represents the implementation of the Yangtze River Delta Development Strategy, the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) for Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China and the Development Plan for a City Cluster in Yangtze River Delta, and is of great significance for fully displaying the role of aviation hubs as “new power source”, facilitating the collaborative development of civil aviation in the area, and building a world-class airport cluster that matches the world-class city cluster, so as to advance the coordinative development of the Yangtze River Delta, improve the urbanization quality and form new advantages for global competition.